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Globalized Labor Market: State Security and Impacts on Women Migrant Workers

Sat, March 18, 5:15 to 7:15pm, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Floor: 2nd Floor, Huron

Abstract

Studies on security are often criticized for lacking a gender perspective and for disparaging transnational migrant workers as a threat to national security. This paper recognizes transnational migrant workers as those seeking human security on both national and international levels. It focuses on the realities and grounded experiences of female migrant workers through the lens of women reproductive health issues. By doing so, this research attempts to provide a gendered perspective on the phenomenon of transnational migration from Thailand to South Korea. The paper aims to reflect on the shortcomings of current Thai and South Korean policies. The study looks into the Thai female migrant workers who are searching for economic security in South Korea. In particular, it traces what happens to the bodies and the lives of Thai women when border controls become stricter and law enforcement is heightened. The limited mobilizations of migrant worker policies have been implemented strictly within South Korea, resulting in various challenges for Thai female migrants. The paper examines the structural violence behind the scene. By conducting in-depth interviews with female migrant workers in various sectors, the researcher looks at women’s commonly faced reproductive health issues, including those that are generated from marriage, pregnancy, abortion, birth control and sexual transmitted diseases. What are the challenges that Thai women face when they resist the national and inter-state security system in South Korea? This paper carefully considers this important question, and draws upon findings from field research to help to answer it.

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